To be honest I failed chemistry and biology in college, perhaps if they would have related it to making beer I would have stayed awake. Anyway, I make a damn good beer now. If you want to get your foot in the door, go ask to be an apprentice somewhere, and be persistant. I think the business end is HUGE. You could make the greatest beer in the world, but if you can't market your product you won't get off the ground. Also, read the thread on selling beer. Good luck!

__________________Born Brewing Co.

Primary :emptySecondary : emptyKEG: empty

May your beer never be empty, and a roof always over your head, and when your day comes, may you get to heaven before the devil knows your dead.

i got an e-mail from the Siebel Institute yesterday about Oregon St. Siebel is having a special program that two prof's from OSU are doing over the American Beer Business over the past 50 years. i didn't realize they had a brewers program? pretty cool.
just depends on what you want to do. brew, or run a business. read "Bbrewing Up A Business" by the guy that owns Dogfish Head Brewery. he started brewing, now has three brewers that brew for him, but he misses the brewing part!!!

hey Deroux's, are you gonna go to that thing in Chicago? I think I might - it's only like 100 bucks and it's not till October - but I dunno how fast they're gonna sell out of tickets.... I sent 'em an email but they haven't gotten back to me yet

he's talking about the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago. they are a brewing school w/ campuses in Chicago, Munich, and Montreal (i think?).

i'd love to go Dragonfly, but won't get to. it would be some good info to get a hold of if somebody was wanting to get into the business. go to www.beertown.org. they have a series of books you can guy that are for starting a brew business. plus they have other industry statistics you can read through. Siebel also does a week long advanced homebrewers course in Durango, CO that would be a blast. i think it's going on this week? they go through the process of all-grain brewing, and do some hands on duringthe week. they visit a couple breweries and brew pubs for "field trips". bad thing is, it's almost as much as the web based concise course in brewing degree!!!!

DeRoux, I actually looked into the homebrewers class in Durango. It is next week the 25-29. The syllabus looked awesome, but I couldn't swing the $1200 class fee. I will have to see what the $100 class is in Chicago.

__________________Born Brewing Co.

Primary :emptySecondary : emptyKEG: empty

May your beer never be empty, and a roof always over your head, and when your day comes, may you get to heaven before the devil knows your dead.

I'm thinkin, I've basically narrowed my options down to two paths: and they go alike this:

1) business school @ IU w microbiology minor - I think that I could kick some serious ass on the business side of the spectrum, and if I took one of the courses in Chicago or maybe even UC-davis and brewed all thru college I could be ok.

option 2) fermentation science degree from Oregon St - does anyone know anything about this place? I checked it out online and they look like the bomb! But, that would prepare me for work in a brewery, but not how to run one.

Depends what you want to do. Do you want to start a brewery from scratch? A business degree would probably help a lot with that, and if you're confident in your brewing abilities on a commercial scale, then who needs a degree.

But if you want to get a job in an existing brewery, most of the big (and even small) ones like to see a degree in fermentation science. Every brewer who passed through the brewery I used to work at (not as a brewer) had a Davis degree. Of course there are lots of folks who work at breweries without degrees, but if you want to be one of the actual brewers, you'll need a degree.

Cheers

__________________Oh don't give me none more of that Old Janx Spirit
No, don't you give me none more of that Old Janx Spirit
For my head will fly, my tongue will lie, my eyes will fry and I may die
Won't you pour me one more of that sinful Old Janx Spirit

Advanced degrees are like drivers licenses; everyone has one but only a few licensed drivers get into the Indy 500. My point is that experience and skill will get you further than a weekend in Chicago. My hero, Pete Slosberg doesn't have a brewing degree. He just brewed alot of beer. The Sam Adams guy, Jim Kock is a lawyer.